Can ballot box association



(No Model.)

S. J. HOWELL. METHOD OF GANUELING BALLOTS.

Patented Aug. 6, 1889.

U ITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

SILAS J. HOWELL, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO THE AMERI- CAN BALLOT BOX ASSOCIATION, OF SAME PLACE.

METHOD OF CANCELING BALLOTS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 408,622, dated August 6, 1889.

Application filed Iuly 2, 1885. Serial No. 170,4 (N m dBL) To aZZ whom, it may concern.-

Be it known that I, SILAs J. HOWELL, of Boston, county of Suffolk, State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in Methods of Canceling Ballots, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification, like letters on the drawing representing like parts.

This. invention comprises a method of' effectually canceling ballots as they are depos ited in a ballot-box or voting-machine, substantially such as is embodied in my Patent No. 332,398, dated December 15, 1885, for aballot-box, which said ballot-box may be taken I 5 as one illustration of apparatus for practicing my invention herein.

I am aware that prior to my invention it was common practice in 'the prevention of fraudulent voting to place check-marking devices in the bL110t-bOX, and that to prevent fraud on checks, drafts, and other monetary instruments it was common to print across the face of such instrument; but I am not aware that ballots have heretofore been canceled as they were voted by printing a line across their face from end to end, crossing every name and material fact upon said ballot, and rendering any subsequent alteration of such ballot inany part instantly visible.

0 My invention consists of the'method of canceling ballots voted open in a voting-machine by printing a line of characters across .the face of said ballots from end to end as they are passed one by one through the machine 3 5 to thereby cross and mark every material thing or name or statement upon such ballot, whether there present originally or applied thereto before voting, asI will now proceed to particularly set forth and claim.

Taking the printing devices of the apparatus forming the subject-matter of my aforementioned application as a representative means for practicing the present invention, I will assume that the depositing of ballots at an election is proceeding in due form. As

the ballots are being advanced by the rolls carrying the printing medium, an impression will be made upon the face of the ballot ex tending from end to end of the same, crossing all the names printed or written thereon or applied thereto before the ballot is cast or voted in the form known as a paster or sticker, so that if a paster should be removed from the ballot after it has been received in the box the fact would be indicated at sight and with certainty by the break in the line ofcancellation-marks. So also if a paster were added subsequent to the deposit of the ballot in the machine that fact would be indicated beyond controversy by the absence of the canceling-marks or by their failure to properly match with those on the remainder of the ticket in case it were attempted to counterfeit the characters on the paster before applying it, and if there should be reason to suspect the application of counterfeit pastors the truth would be known with certainty by removing the paster and ascertaining whether or not there had been an imprint beneath it upon the body of the ballot. In order to render such attempts at counterfeiting more difficult, the characters are preferably arranged in an intelligible order, so that any irregularity will be noticeable; but they will preferably be of a somewhat unusual form-such, for example, as a printed sentence, clause, or date, which may be chosen-and, preferably, the type will be. of some unusual or irregular pattern, or the characters may be somewhat mutilated, so that, while not destroying their continuity and completeness, yet so as to leave them intelligible and their matter legible; The imprinting of the ballots obviously leads to the instant detection of ballot-box stuffing, since but one ballot can be printed at a time when such an arrangement as that hereinbefore referred to is used, and each ballot is voted unfolded.

My invention may be practiced in connection with any ballot-box or voting-machine containing type by which to imprint the face of the ballot'as it is being deposited.

The drawing represents a ticket bearing at its face from end to end cancellation-marks shown in my invention. 5

Referring to the drawing, A is the ballot, showing on its face the names a a of the candidates, and across these names on the face of the open ballot is the line b of cancellation.

I claim In testimony whereof I have signed my name The method of canceling ballots voted open to this specification in the presence of two subin a voting-machine by printing a line of scribing witnesses. Y

characters across the face of said ballots from 5 end to end as they are passed one by one SILAS J. I'IO\VELL.

through the machine, so as to cross and mark every material thing or name or statement XVitnesses:

upon such ballot, whether there originally 01' GEO. WV. GREGORY,

applied thereto before voting, substantially W. H. SIGsTON.

10 as set forth. 

